Artist To Draw Every Single Thing in His Late Grandfather's Workshop

A lot of people have fond memories of our parents’ and grandparents’ workshops. And we have a sentimental attachment to the musty smell of old wood shavings, the dusty jars filled with rust-mottled screws, the drawers tumbling over with ancient screwdrivers. For tinkerers, a worktable is like an altar to human industry and mechanical possibility. And a workshop borders on the sacred—a hallowed space, like a church.
When artist Lee John Phillip’s grandfather passed away, he left behind a workshop—its shelves buckling with decades of things that might prove useful someday. Phillips estimates that his grandfather collected well over 100,000 different objects—pliers, jars, brackets, and project scraps. As a memorial to his late grandfather, Phillips is going to draw every single thing in the workshop. And he is documenting The Shed Project, as he calls it, on Instagram.

“I am currently cataloguing the entire contents of my late grandfather's tool shed. I estimate the project to take around 5 years and will involve me illustrating in excess of 100,000 items,” Phillips explains.